Aamir Abbas

 P R O F E SS I O N A L S Y N O P S Y S A dynamic professional with over 20 years of experience in: Experience in AWS Management, Ansible Tower, Terraform, LAN/WAN/NOC Administration, Windows/Linux Servers Management, VCenter/ESXi/Hyper-V Management, Citrix XenCenter Management, NOS Patches & Updates, etc. Instrumental in assessing and mapping hardware / software / network requirements, translating them into technofunctional specifications & designing customized solutions for the same Strong knowledge of Microsoft Active Directory and Windows Server environments encompassing Windows Server Versions, Active Directory Forest mode, Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, 2016,2019, MS Exchange Cluster Management, Group Policy application, Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) Roles, Global Directories, Exchange & Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP & LDAPS), Certificate Services, DNS, DHCP, IIS, FTP, Internet Security & Acceleration (ISA 2004/2006), Threat Mangement Gateway (TMG), SCCM (Systems Center Configuration Manager), WSUS (Windows Server Update Services)MS Entra ID, MS Intune, MS Teams, Sharepoint, OneDrive Proficient in providing technical support for troubleshooting complex issues effectively while ensuring minimum downtime & maximum availability of network within established Service Level Agreements Analytical, meticulous and quality-oriented professional with an eye for detail Strong problem solving & technical skills coupled with confident decision making for enabling effective solutions leading to high customer satisfaction and low operational costs O R G A N I Z A T I O N A L E X P E R I E N C E May’23 – Nov’24 Tkxel – Lahore, Pakistan as Manager – Infrastructure and Networks Key Result Areas: Develop and implement strategies for the organization's IT infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and security. Implemented and managed network performance monitoring and troubleshooting, ensuring optimal network health and minimizing downtime using SolarWinds and Zabbix. Lead the planning, design, and implementation of server systems, storage solutions, and other critical infrastructure components. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align infrastructure initiatives with business goals. Resolved conflicts and negotiated mutually beneficial agreements between parties. Designs, builds, deploys, and maintains business applications and critical infrastructure inside the AWS Cloud. Architecting, building, and maintaining cost-efficient, scalable cloud environments for the organization. Understanding business objectives of the company and creating cloud-based solutions to facilitate those objectives. Moving archaic systems into the cloud for more efficiency within the organization – aka digital transformation. Keeping cloud environments secure and preventing downtime or security breaches. Design, implement, and manage the organization's network architecture to support current and future business needs. Ensure network security measures are in place, including firewalls, VPNs, and other relevant technologies. Stay abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies to drive continuous improvement in network infrastructure. Build and lead a high-performing team of IT professionals, providing guidance, mentorship, and performance management. Foster a collaborative and innovative work culture within the infrastructure and networks team. Collaborate with external vendors and service providers to ensure the effective delivery of infrastructure services. Negotiate contracts, manage vendor relationships, and stay informed about industry best practices. Implement and maintain security protocols to safeguard the organization's IT infrastructure. Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards. May’21 – May’23 Xavor Corporations — Lahore, Pakistan, as Infrastructure and Cloud Operations Lead Key Result Areas: Administer and maintain Microsoft Exchange servers (Exchange 2013/2016/2019/Online) in on-premises, hybrid, or cloud environments. Configure and manage Exchange services, including mail flow, mailbox databases, and public folders. Manage and maintain DAG (Database Availability Groups) for high availability. Designs, builds, deploys, and maintains business applications and critical infrastructure inside the AWS Cloud. Architecting, building, and maintaining cost-efficient, scalable cloud environments for the organization. Understanding business objectives of the company and creating cloud-based solutions to facilitate those objectives. Moving archaic systems into the cloud for more efficiency within the organization – aka digital transformation. Keeping cloud environments secure and preventing downtime or security breaches. Determining the risk associated with third-party platforms or frameworks. Looking for ways to improve operations within company to digitize common tasks. Designing, building, maintaining internal cloud applications for the organization. Transferring data and internal processes to cloud architecture. Keeping data leakage and downtime to an absolute minimum. Keeping up to date on best practices in cloud computing and making improvements to the cloud infrastructure for the organization. Communicating with internal teams, like Sales, Development, Operations, and IT. Communicate with stakeholders and build applications to meet project needs. Making hardware and software recommendations for the organization, based on needs of the project and organization. Saved $1500/month by implementing cost-saving initiatives that addressed long-standing problems. Jan’16 – May’21 eBricks Inc. — Lahore, Pakistan, as Senior DevOps/Systems/Networks Administrator Key Result Areas: Manage Amazon Web Services – EC2, S3, SNS, RDS, IAM, VPC and Route53 Expertise in architecting secure VPC Solutions in AWS with the help of Network ACLs, Security Groups, Public and Private Network Configurations Create S3 buckets and also managing policies for S3 buckets Experience in managing and maintaining IAM Policies in AWS to define groups, create users, assign roles and define rules for role-based access to AWS resources Create Snapshots and Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) of the Instances for backup and creating clone instances Taking backup of MongoDB using AWS Cli and maintaining the same on S3 bucket Used JIRA to track issues and change management Engage in the performance management process such as performance reviews, daily feedback, and mentoring Review scope of work and assign tasks based on artist skills/abilities Communicate successes and challenges faced by the team to the Director IT Lead team of Systems/Networks Administrators to /assist with the installation, configuration, administration and maintenance of eBricks tech infrastructure; authentication, messaging, DCHP/DNS, Deployment Systems (CodePipeline /Ansible / Terraform) Maintain and manage the network infrastructure; Switches & Firewalls Performing systems analysis, evaluation, design, integration, documentation & implementation of applications that require comprehensive knowledge and technical skills Serving as member of active deployment, troubleshooting & maintenance team; setting up configuration & maintaining various servers/Blade Servers & their services (Citrix XenCenter, VMware, WSUS, Clusters, RDS 2012, IIS Server Management, NTP, Group Policy, Backups, and Storages) Responsible for effective provisioning, installation/configuration, operation, and maintenance of systems hardware and software and related infrastructure. Participates in technical research and development to enable continuing innovation within the infrastructure. Ensures that system hardware, operating systems, software systems, and related procedures adhere to organizational values, enabling staff, volunteers, and Partners. Assists project teams with technical issues in the Initiation and Planning phases of our standard Project Management Methodology. These activities include the definition of needs, benefits, and technical strategy; research & development within the project life-cycle; technical analysis and design; and support of operations staff in executing, testing and rollingout the solutions. Troubleshooting Nagios and Prometheus alerts Install new / rebuild existing servers and configure hardware, peripherals, services, settings, directories, storage, etc. in accordance with standards and project/operational requirements. Perform daily system monitoring, verifying the integrity and availability of all hardware, server resources, systems and key processes, reviewing system and application logs, and verifying completion of scheduled jobs such as backups. Perform regular security monitoring to identify any possible intrusions. Create, change, and delete user accounts per request. Provide Tier III/other support per request from various constituencies. Investigate and troubleshoot issues. Repair and recover from hardware or software failures. Coordinate and communicate with impacted constituencies. Perform ongoing performance tuning, hardware upgrades, and resource optimization as required. Configure CPU, memory, and disk partitions as required. Maintain data center environmental and monitoring equipment. Apply OS patches and upgrades on a regular basis, and upgrade administrative tools and utilities. Configure / add new services as necessary. May’11 – Jan’16 emaratech FZ LLC — Dubai, UAE, as Senior Systems Administrator Key Result Areas: Responsible for Windows, LAN, VMware & Internet Information Services (IIS) administration and managing FTP, AD/DNS, Mail & ISA Servers Designing & implementing highly available (HA) & disaster recovery (DR) solutions for different projects like eForm, eServices, Vision eForm, PCI Noqodi and IQC Vision Performing systems analysis, evaluation, design, integration, documentation & implementation of applications that require comprehensive knowledge and technical skills Serving as member of active deployment, troubleshooting & maintenance team; setting up configuration & maintaining various servers/Blade Servers & their services (VMware, WSUS, HPOV, Clusters, RDS 2012, IIS Server Management, NTP, Group Policy, SharePoint Server, WebSphere, Backups, and Storages) Handling Microsoft Exchange 2013 Deployment, Configuration and Troubleshooting. Handling Netbackup 7.7.1 for taking backup for Exchange 2013 Databases. Serving Operations Manager for Windows, HP Diagnostics, maintained & deployed Sitescope along with HP Engineers Implementing PCI-DSS on Noqodi Payment Gateway & part of ISO 27001 Implementation Team Installing & configuring Antivirus Servers (Sophos and Symantec) Performing regular: Security monitoring to identify any possible intrusions and daily backup operations while ensuring all required file systems and system data are successfully backed up to the appropriate media, recovery tapes or disks File archival and purge as necessary; creating, changing and deleting user accounts per request o Periodic performance reporting to support capacity planning Ongoing performance tuning, hardware upgrades & resource optimization as required Extending Tier III/other support per request from various constituencies; investigating & troubleshooting issues Apply OS patches and upgrades on a regular basis, and upgrade administrative tools and utilities. Configure / add new services as necessary Upgrading & configuring system software for various Enterprise Applications that are utilized to support the DSN per project or operational needs Feb’08 – Apr’11 Descon Engineering Limited— Lahore, Pakistan as Senior Networks/Systems Engineer Key Result Areas: Configured, installed and troubleshoot network & security related products like Routers, Switches and Firewalls for Descon Head Quarter & all remote sites Provided technical services to all remote sites to maintain WAN for smooth services Carried out plans, sourcing & implementation of routine & additional requirements for WAN with Manager TSG Handled backup of all WAN devices configuration and placed it on alternate location Maintained and extended VPN Connectivity between DHQ & other remote sites; maintained cabling infrastructure for WAN devices at DHQ Prepared network design for additional requirements and relocations; managed CS of LAN/WAN related requirements / enhancements/ maintenance solutions  Configured and maintained: Services like Active Directory, E-mail, FTP, DNS and Web Trend Micro Interscan Messaging Security Suite for relay services, spam control and other email related issues Assigned call assigning to Network or Hardware Technicians and ensuring timely execution Monitored internet / intranet connectivity and internet services (FTP, DNS, HTTP, SMTP, POP3 etc) using sMonitor and bandwidth usage through PRTG Maintain and extend the monitoring system using Solarwinds P R E V I O U S E X P E R I E N C E Aug’06 – Jan’08 JS Investments Limited (Formerly JS Abamco Limited) — Lahore, Pakistan as Networks / Systems Engineer Oct’04 – Jul’06 Punjab University — Lahore, Pakistan as Assistant Networks/Systems Engineer Jan’03 – Sept’03 Demax Computer Systems — Lahore, Pakistan as Junior Systems Analyst / Desktop Support P R O F E S S I O N A L Q U A L I F I C A T I O N 2003 M.Sc. in Computer Sciences (Computer Networks) from Punjab University College of information technology (PUCIT) — Lahore, Pakistan C E R T I F I C A T I O N S AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C02), in 2022 AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01), in 2021 Microsoft Certified Professional (MCSA), in 2017 ITIL 2011 Foundation Certified, in Nov 2014 Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP), in 2009 Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), in 2006 T R A I N I N G S  Completed training in Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) domains, including Security and Risk Management, Asset Security, Security Architecture and Engineering, Communication and Network Security, Identity and Access Management, and Security Assessment and Testing.  Attended advanced training sessions for Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), focusing on Governance, Risk Management, Incident Management, and Information Security Program Development.  Undertook comprehensive training for Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), covering Auditing Information Systems, Governance and Management of IT, Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation, and Protection of Information Assets. P E R S O N A L D E T A I L S Date of Birth : 6th September 1981 Languages Known : English & Urdu Address : 407/26 Gulistan Colony Lahore, Pakistan. Nationality : Pakistani Marital Status : Married Driving License : UAE:- and Pakistan: 2006/14482 No. of Dependents : 4 Passport Details : AK-